TEMPE – For the duration of the 2-hour, 10-minute match on Thursday evening, Sun Devil Soccer and a fresh-looking Texas Longhorn program under first-year head coach Margueritte Bates had the sellout crowd of 1,505 inside Sun Devil Soccer Stadium on edge up until the final whistle on the 1-1 tie.
With Texas (2-0-1) visiting Arizona for the first time since the 2007 campaign, the Longhorns brought former SEC Freshman of the Year Amalia Villarreal along with several members of various USYNTs to Tempe. But Bates’ bunch was unable to find the back of the net outside of Villarreal’s first-half goal in the 17’ that pushed the Longhorns ahead 1-0.
Kennedy Zorn, a Peoria, Ariz., native playing in her first regular season match back in Arizona since transferring from Michigan State during the offseason, made four saves on five Texas shots on goal. Her defensive abilities gave the Sun Devil offense an opportunity to answer Villarreal’s goal.
12 minutes, 20 seconds after Villarreal scored her third goal in as many matches this season, Lucy Fazackerley capitalized on an Addison Baltodano corner kick attempt by sending a loose ball away from Texas goalkeeper Bayliss Flynn and into the back of the net to level the score.
The leveled score stood for the remainder of the match’s 60 minutes despite Texas being credited with nine second-half shots and Zorn making sure none went into the frame.
Arizona State, which was limited to just three second-half shots, had the last scoring opportunity by either team in the closing seconds after Texas’ Callan Harrington was issued a yellow card that set up a Sun Devil free kick from 50 yards out.
Even though the kick sailed into the attacking 6-yard box, no Sun Devil managed to get on the receiving end as the ball trickled out of bounds as the final horn sounded.
From head coach Graham Winkworth
"It looked like an early-season match, where we were trying to figure ourselves out as much as the opposition. But I thought it was a good, even match. I thought Texas had spells where they were much better than us and they had a lot of the ball, but other than in the second half when people were tiring, it didn't really force Kennedy (Zorn) into too many saves. Obviously, they scored a world-class goal, but outside of that in the first half, it didn't feel like (Zorn) was too busy. Also, it didn't feel like we were making them too busy in the first half either until we made some substitutions towards the end of the first half, which I was really happy with. So overall, I thought one-all was probably a fair result, but we always want to win every game, so happy and disappointed at the same time"
Match Notes
- Lucy Fazackerley’s first-half goal ended a streak of consecutive scoreless minutes played in net by Texas goalkeeper Bayliss Flynn at 209:47.
- Prior to Thursday night’s match, Flynn had opened the season with back-to-back clean sheets against Houston Christian (3-0) and Pittsburgh (1-0), before surrendering her first goal of the season to Fazackerley.
- Thursday night marked just the fifth time in program history that Arizona State drew 1,000-or-more fans to a home-opening contest:
- 1,505 vs. Texas on Aug. 20, 2026
- 1,223 vs. South Dakota State on Aug. 18, 2022
- 1,143 vs. Central Arkansas on Aug. 25, 2019
- 1,070 vs. Ohio State on Aug. 18, 2017
- 1,014 vs. Northern Arizona on Aug. 19, 2011
- Despite spending a majority of her time on the pitch in the defensive third, Lucy Fazackerley, a defender, has now scored at least one goal in each of her four collegiate seasons:
- 3 in 2023 at East Carolina
- 1 in 2024 at East Carolina
- 3 in 2025 at Arizona State
- 1 in 2026 at Arizona State
Up Next
Arizona State (1-0-1) will look to keep its unbeaten start to the season intact next time out as the Sun Devils return to the pitch at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 23, when ASU takes on Buffalo (2-1) at 10 a.m. MST on ESPN+.
Follow Us
For the latest information on the team, follow @SunDevilSoccer on X, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TheSunDevils on X, Instagram and Facebook.